Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 - Accidents

Accidents

The bridge sustained heavy damage on October 29, 1978, when it was struck by a Norwegian container ship, the m.v. Marie Bakke. The ship hit the downstream end of the swing span, which had been in the fully open position; that was its normal position, as the span was closed only when trains needed to cross. Repairs took seven weeks, not being completed until January 1979. Meanwhile, BN and Amtrak trains had to be rerouted via Union Pacific tracks and across the Steel Bridge to reach the west side of the river. BN filed suit against the shipping line that owned the vessel, charging negligence and seeking damages, and ultimately reached an out-of-court settlement under which it received about $3.5 million from the shipping company.

On New Year's Eve 1983, at about 10:25 p.m., two locomotives heading a BN freight train plunged into the river through the open swing span, resulting in the deaths of two crew persons. It was the worst train-related accident in the bridge's history. The cause was determined to have been human error, that the train crew had passed a red signal.